


Little Bird

by teenage_dystopian_book_nerd



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Alive Noah, I was sad please don't blame me, Multi, TRK alternate ending, The Raven King Spoilers, critical life choices, noah gets his life back
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-15
Updated: 2016-05-15
Packaged: 2018-06-08 14:09:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6858136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teenage_dystopian_book_nerd/pseuds/teenage_dystopian_book_nerd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Or so he thought. Instead, Noah had remained securely in place. Why?' He wondered. Why have I not become no more than a memory yet?</p><p>It was as if Cabeswater had kept him there, trapped, just waiting for the right moment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Rebirth

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this when I finished The Raven King because I was so incredibly depressed about how Noah's story ended and so this came out of my depression....enjoy!
> 
> Disclaimer: all of the characters belong to Maggie Stiefvater

And then he slipped from time.

 

Or so he thought. Instead, Noah had remained securely in place. _Why?'_ He wondered. _W_ _hy have I not become no more than a memory yet?_

 

It was as if Cabeswater had kept him there, trapped, just waiting for the right moment.

 

5 minutes. An hour.

 

Finally, Noah heard a whisper. _From the trees?_ he wondered. This was then quickly cut short by the words being repeated, only this time clearer, louder.

"Cabeswater is dying. When we die, you go too. Forever. But we like you, Little Bird. So we are giving you a chance to live again. Will you accept it?"

_A chance? To live? Why?_ But then Noah answered himself- _because I am favoured by Cabeswater, that's why._

"As a 17-year-old, or as my true age now?"

"That is for you to decide." Cabeswater replied, sounding weaker than ever before.

Another choice to make. Another choice that would literally affect his life (or no life) forever.

"Quickly, Little Bird. Our time is running out."

Noah thought about the pros and cons for each: pro- he would be able to live; con- what would he be like?

                                                                           pro- he would live longer; con- he still had an older mind at heart.

What to do? What to do?

Blue would love it if he became alive again, just as the others would also.

But what about his parents? Annie? Adele?

He made his decision.

"Cabeswater." Noah stated, loud and clear "I choose to live, as a 17-year-old."

"Good choice, Little Bird. And let it be so."

* * *

Across the forest, Adam was watching Cabeswater fall apart, piece by piece. Then, he heard a last fervent whisper carry through the last remaining trees.

"Be free, Little Bird. Live the life you never had to complete."

Then, as if in reply, a voice- almost ethereal, turning human.

"I will."

* * *

And, back across the forest, Noah Czerny took his first breath for the first time in seven years.


	2. Discovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Memories. Long-forgotten memories came rushing back in a torrent of emotions and senses. First word. First day of school. First detention. First speeding ticket. First kiss. Old memories, mixed with newer ones. Meeting Adam. Monmouth. Kissing Blue. Everyone's secrets. Whelk.

Memories. Long-forgotten memories came rushing back in a torrent of emotions and senses. First word. First day of school. First detention. First speeding ticket. First kiss. Old memories, mixed with newer ones. Meeting Adam. Monmouth. Kissing Blue. Everyone's secrets. Whelk.

 

Then, voices coming through the forest. Gansey? Henry Cheng (whom he never met, but still recognises)? Adam? Ronan? Blue?

 

A goodbye. Footsteps.

 

Gansey; Adam; Ronan; Blue- Noah's friends. Not family. But how should he tell his parents that he's _alive_? Annie? Adele?

 

Voices coming closer. No time to think now. Only time to act. To run? To hide? To stay.

 

Closer. Closer.

* * *

As Adam walked through the forest back to the pig, he thought that he heard a panicked cry coming from somewhere deeper. Although, much to Adam's surprise, he was quite obviously not the only one in their small group to have heard it- both Ronan and Blue had turned to each other in confusion.

"Uh, does anyone want to go and see what that noise was?" Adam asked the others.

"Yeah, I'll come, and I'm sure that the others will come too." Blue replied with a piercing glare at the rest of the group.

"Sorry, I've got to head back." This was Cheng- Henry- and was met by a chorus of disgruntled accepting noises, mostly from Blue.

"Okay then, see you tomorrow Henry." Gansey stated simply.

And then the Raven Boys (and Girl) set off deeper into the forest.

* * *

New clothes. Food. Gelato. Pizza. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

* * *

 

As they approached a small yet familiar clearing, Blue noticed a dark shape lying on the grass- a small shape, with the brightest blond hair. Could it be? No, Noah had most likely disappeared along with Cabeswater. Could it be?

"Noah?" she called out.

* * *

A voice.

"Blue?"

* * *

It was! It was! How though? How?

"Noah! You're here! Do you need to use my energy?"

"No," came the reply, a harsh whisper "not anymore."

* * *

"Not anymore." That was the truth, Noah thought, as the others approached the clearing. He was alive now. Alive. Something he hadn't been for seven, nearly eight, years. Those were his last thoughts before a small figure with dark black hair catapulted herself into his arms.

"Blue" he whispered.

"Noah- you're....you're warm. How?" Blue whispered back, curious yet demanding. He sighed.

"Perhaps this is something you had all better hear." Noah sighed, resigned.

 

And so he did.

 


	3. Alive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "What do you mean, you're alive?"  
> "Ronan, I told you. I literally just told all of you. Cabeswater liked my energy so when I died, they kept me as a ghost. Now, as Cabeswater died, it gave me a chance to live my life again from where it ended. So I took it for me, for my for my family, for my friends. All of us."

"What do you mean, you're _alive_?"

"Ronan, I told you. I literally just told all of you. Cabeswater liked my energy so when I died, they kept me as a ghost. Now, as Cabeswater died, it gave me a chance to live my life again from where it ended. So I took it for me, for my for my family, for my friends. All of us."

"Well, Noah, I'm just glad that you're alive, after what happened with Glendower...."

"Yes, Gansey, we all know the story about how your dear Owen Glendower broke your heart."

"Thanks for that, Ronan."

But Noah had tuned out of his friend's meaningless bickering, and instead he just concentrated on breathing. On stretching his unused muscles. On clicking his joints. On the hunger in his belly. Frustrated, the boy in question decided to interrupt his friends.

"Guys, can please go and get some gelato? I'm starving."

"Well you would be after seven years of being dead and not eating...." Ronan muttered, stalking off, yelping as Adam punched him in his shoulder.

* * *

After several bowels of raspberry-ripple and pistachio ice-cream as well as an entire hawaiian-with-extra-cheese-and-olives pizza at Nino's, Noah was finally ready to go back to Monmouth. To sleep? Not as such- Blue was going to adjust some of Ronan's old t-shirts for Noah for the time-being, before they could go clothes shopping tomorrow.

* * *

"A thrift shop? You want to go to a _thrift shop_ for your clothes?" Gansey demanded at breakfast the next morning.

Noah was happily drinking orange juice whilst wearing one of Ronan's 'Murder Squash' t-shirts and listening to Blink-182's greatest hits album (at his specific request).

"Well, they are from when I was originally a teenager, you know." Noah replied simply.

"Oh, let him go. You could always pick up some vintage polo shirts whilst you're there." Blue argued, high-fiving Noah with a big, joking smile on her face.

And so, after picking up Ronan and Adam from Adam's apartment above St. Agnes, off they went.

* * *

After numerous hours of Ronan swearing, Gansey complaining 'But they're cheap', Blue and Adam telling off their boyfriends, Noah exclaiming 'I used to have a top/pair of jeans EXACTLY like this!" and multiple bags (not all for Noah) later, they returned to the old factory, tired and starving for Ninos'. Noah was happy. Laughing. Alive. And, as the group clambered up the old, creaking stairs, he made a vow to change; a vow to continue to live his life as he should have, seven years ago.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Noah (by my approximation) grew up in the nineties/noughties. Thrift stores sell clothes from these eras. It makes sense.


	4. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was graduation day at Princeton. This was, surprisingly, Adam, Gansey and Noah had opted to go. Blue had done her course in conservation in multiple places across the world- including the tiny mostly-uninhabitable island of Montserrat in the Caribbean and in Haiti, of all places. She had seen leopards, tree-frogs, insects and she had campaigned to save hundreds of species from extinction.

5 years later....

It was graduation day at Princeton. This was where, surprisingly, Adam, Gansey and Noah had opted to go. Blue had done her course in conservation in multiple places across the world- including the tiny mostly-uninhabitable island of Montserrat in the Caribbean and in Haiti, of all places. She had seen leopards, tree-frogs, insects and she had campaigned to save hundreds of species from extinction.

 

Ronan and Adam (not at all to everyone's surprise) were fiancées now- Ronan had proposed only a few hours earlier. The boy in question had stayed behind at Monmouth and The Barns and he was now a self-made dream-farmer (whatever that meant, Noah didn't know). Adam was graduating with a degree in engineering, not to anyone's surprise, and Adam seemed quite proud of this feat.

 

Gansey was graduating with a degree in World History and he already had been accepted as an apprentice teacher at Aglionby Academy (again to no-one's surprise).

 

And Noah, well Noah's story was a lot more complicated. Apparently, his family had all had a shared dream in which Noah was brought back to life, and Cabeswater had explained everything. so this was all one big surprise when, albeit several months after Noah's resurrection, he rang his family for the first time in eight years and they weren't surprised, shocked or disbelieving- instead they were accepting, joyous and elated. So here they were now, in the crowd, waiting with Blue and Ronan for Gansey, Adam and Noah to collect their diplomas. But what was Noah graduating in? Well, this had stumped Noah as his original plan was to become a psychologist, much to his father's delight. Now though? Now Noah had decided to follow his greatest dream:

"Noah Czerny, through all of your hard work, I herby present you with this diploma in photography. Congratulations."

Yes, he had always loved taking photographs, both dead and alive, and when Noah had announced his plans, Blue has thrown his arms around him, Gansey had looked at him with a shocked look on his face, and Ronan and Adam had given each other knowing looks.

"I now pronounce you full graduates of Princeton University. May your lives continue to be filled with surprises, and may you always follow your dreams.

 

Noah had done it.

 

He was here; whole.

 

He was alive.

**Author's Note:**

> Just to clarify- Annie is what I called Noah's other (as well as Adele) younger sister.


End file.
